When we launched the New England Center for Investigative Reporting here at Boston University back in January, we had no idea we would be part of what now seems like a revolutionary movement to ensure the survival of investigative reporting in this country…but that’s what’s happened.

During the same week we started operations, so did a center in Madison, Wisconsin. There are now two nonprofit investigative reporting centers in California, one in Seattle, Denver, Houston, and even a for-profit center just getting started in New Jersey.

Journalists across the nation are beginning to envision their future not in traditional newspaper or TV and radio newsrooms but in the offices of these new models for doing journalism. The movement has given birth to a network that now links state centers like ours with long-standing non-profit investigative reporting groups like The Center for Public Integrity in Washington and The Center for Investigative Reporting in San Francisco. Collaboration is a key word. We’ll all be working together on reporting projects and in figuring out ways to ensure sustainability.

In our case, being an integral part of a university journalism program, students are fully engaged in our work—21 so far and it’s just the beginning. We are not only doing investigative reporting in collaboration with our media partners we are training a new generation of diggers. Our effort and those of the other investigative reporting centers are not just about journalism. We are here not just to change the course of the journalism profession. We are here because we truly believe that without a watchdog—the extra set of eyes envisioned by our founding fathers when they put in place the First Amendment–our democracy is at risk. The New England Center for Investigative Reporting at Boston University exists for you–the people. We will hold the powerful accountable on your behalf. That’s our promise and we’re asking that you join us in this mission.